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“When Freedom is the Question, Abolition is the Answer,” a conversation with Bill Ayers and Barbara Smith
December 5 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm EST
Join us for a conversation with Bill Ayers and Barbara Smith around Ayers’ latest book When Freedom is the Question, Abolition is the Answer: Reflections on Collective Liberation which invites readers to understand abolition as a framework in which not only incarceration, police violence, and racial and economic disparities are eliminated, but a new society built on restorative justice, mutual aid, and community solidarity thrives. “Our job, right here and right now, is to become today’s abolitionists—reimagining, resisting, and rebuilding in the name of freedom.”
Masks required and can be provided.
Suggested donation- $20
Bill Ayers is a scholar known widely for his social justice activism. He has written extensively about freedom, democracy and education, the cultural contexts of school, and teaching as an intellectual, ethical and political enterprise. His new book, When Freedom is the Question, Abolition is the Answer: Reflections on Collective Liberation, shares reflections that incorporate history, political theory, literature, and his own personal experience within social movements. They come together to offer a radical vision for a more just and equitable world.
The book asks these essential questions: What is freedom? How do we get free? Ayers examines the roots of systemic oppression and the concept of freedom in eight essays, each of which include a writing prompt that encourages readers to engage actively with the topics Ayers explores within:
Abolition as a framework: Ayers invites readers to understand abolition as a framework in which not only incarceration, police violence, and racial and economic disparities are eliminated, but a new society built on restorative justice, mutual aid, and community solidarity thrives. “Our job, right here and right now, is to become today’s abolitionists—reimagining, resisting, and rebuilding in the name
of freedom.”
Critique of the current system: In When Freedom…, Ayers critiques our individualistic society. “Extreme individualism is sold to us as ‘human nature,’” he explains, “and it has the effect of disarming people in the face of collective problems.” Ayers describes a necessary tension between “me” and “we” where there is temptation to view freedom as one’s own lived experience being the most important. Challenging oneself to learn to live with empathy and ambiguity, he argues, opens the door to humility and a collective view of society.
Activism in Action: Ayers points to social movements of the past and the present to inspire readers and to drive home the importance of sustainable organizing and civic engagement. He underscores that education, in classrooms and through consumption of radical literature and other texts, empowers individuals to reimagine freedom and accept our responsibility to one another.
Bill Ayers
Bill Ayers is an activist and scholar who has written extensively about freedom, democracy, the prison-industrial complex and education. His podcast Under the Tree: a seminar on freedom hosts leading thinkers and fighters. His new book shares his own history, political theory and literature to offer an antiracist radical vision for a just and equitable world. “Freedom is large, generous, and generative—and it’s free for all.”
Barbara Smith
Barbara Smith and her colleagues in the Combahee River Collective are credited with originating in 1977 the term “identity politics,” defining it as an inclusive political analysis for contesting the intersectional oppressions of race, gender, class and sexuality. Barbara’s work has been a source of guidance and inspiration to people and movements committed to battling for freedom. In 1980 she co-founded Albany-based Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, the first U.S. publisher of books for women of color and has led freedom struggles ever since.
We are committed to lowering the barriers to access for events at The Sanctuary for Independent Media. For people who are hard of hearing or deaf, blind or low-vision, or whose physical limitations can interfere with a satisfying experience, let us know two weeks in advance so we can make appropriate arrangements.
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